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Download : The Kirrmann Vow.pdf
HENRI MARGRAFF 1920-2006
Henri Margraff was born in Saverne (Bas –Rhin ) into a deeply-anchored Alsatian family: his great grandfather, born in 1802, was a ploughman, his grandfather and father were bakers, their roots in France.
He tells his story from 1939 to 1945 : his escape from annexed and nazified Alsace, his life as a student at the University of Strasbourg while displaced in Clermont-Ferrand, his Resistance, his internments and deportation to Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Flossenbürg, despite not being jewish. He also tells of his revelation of the Holy Spirit on the verge of death and of all the people whom he met on his journey, and in particular, the charismatic Albert Kirrmann, who gave the book its title.
The Vow, pledged on Kirrmann’s initiative amongst imprisoned Alsatians ready to be deported, committed them to stay alive at all costs and to help their detained friends to do the same, with the goal to become the meticulous observers of the injustices and to proclaim witness to Nazi barbarism once they had returned from their deportation.
The story of Henri Margraff is that of a humanist, catholic, resistance fighter and advocate for the reconciliation of France and Germany .
He strived for this reconciliation until the end of his life, setting his Memoirs during this dark period of Europe. It is a page of Alsatian history as well as a personal and positive view of the human soul.
The publication of this book has allowed the Margraff and Kirrmann families to meet again after Henri’s Margraff death.